Sunday, October 5, 2008

Zuni Roast Chicken and Bread Salad

Not Quite Nigella recently posted a delicious picture of Zuni Cafe's Roast Chicken with bread salad. After a difficult work week and work weekend, I decided it was time for a little Roast Chicken therapy. The smell and warmth of a roast chicken--unless you are a vegetarian, I imagine you know the feeling.

I ended up with 2 halves chicken. I wanted an organic free range bird, and definitely was not planning to give Perdue or another other chicken mill birds a try. Got into the grocery store to find all of the organic whole birds had been sold. It is high holidays for Jews this week, and as the kind woman in the aisle said to me (the woman who had gotten the last bird) everyone is making chicken soup. She was nice enough to offer me her bird, but I couldn't take it. My desire for roast chicken because work sucked isn't close to her need to satiate her desire to experience her cultural and family traditions. So, I got two half birds and made my way home.

For the bird, I followed the Zuni Chicken recipe fairly closely. For the Bread Salad, I used the Zuni recipe as a guide using cubed Roasted Garlic bread, red onion, pumpkin seeds, apple cider vinegar, yellow raisins, dill, parsley, and roasted chicken drippings. This salad was pure heaven.